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Furthermore, the landmark 2007 Energy Bill included language I authored giving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) new authority to prosecute and impose fines of up to $1 million per day on anyone who uses a manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance to distort the crude oil, gasoline, or petroleum distillate markets

So when shall we expect to see you in jail, Maria?

You state that Washington refines twice the fuel it needs, but have consistently blocked the expansion of refineries and the lengthening of docks so that we cannot accept larger tankers. You mindset was that "we don't need more oil tankers in our waters". Yes we do.

As the the "portal" state to Alaska, we should be greatly increasing our capacity, not taking measures to block it. We only have roughly 6 million people in this state. Refining for twice that many isn't much.

The state has often used the fictional calculation that "since the population has grown it is using more gas, but the state isn't receiving more taxes" to raise our taxes even further, and as a result we are one of the top taxed states in the country:

http://www.washingtongasprices.com/tax_info.aspx

In fact, our gas taxes just went up another 1.5 cents 2 days ago: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2008/06/30_last-2005-gas-tax-phase.htm

That's a 14.5 cent increase since 2005. The oil companies make what, 10-12 cents?

We know who the crooks are Maria, and are looking forward to seeing this roundup of price manipulators begin with you.